Question

Consider an atom with 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons. State the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons that would occur in a different isotope of the same element, and explain what changed by relating the change to the definition of an isotope.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

An isotope is defined as the specie which contains same number of protons but different number of neutrons.

For example,
`^(12)_(6)C` and
`^(13)_(6)C` are isotopes.

In a neutral carbon atom, there are 6 protons and 6 neutrons.

As it is known that in a neutral atom the number of protons equal to the number of electrons.

This means that in a neutral carbon atom there are also 6 electrons.

Whereas
`^(13)_(6)C` is an isotope of carbon atom whose atomic number is 6 and atomic mass is 13.

Hence, calculate the number of neutrons in
`^(13)_(6)C` as follows.

Atomic mass = no. of protons + no. of neutrons

13 = 6 + no. of neutrons

no. of neutrons = 13 - 6

= 7

Hence, in a
`^(13)_(6)C` isotope of carbon atom there are 6 protons, 6 electrons and 7 neutrons.

This shows that change in number of neutrons take place according to the definition of an isotope.